by SUE FINEMAN
“You ain’t too old,” said Jay. “You’re just right.”
Laura exchanged a warm smile with Luke. Her plan to find Jay another woman had worked better than she’d hoped. Jay had a big heart and he seemed fascinated with Barbara. He must know she was a rich woman, but Laura doubted that would make a difference to him. He just wanted someone to love.
After dinner, while Maria and Ivy cleaned up, Jay said, “I really like your house, Barbara.”
“I designed it myself,” she said as they walked out the back door together.
“No kiddin’!”
Laura and Luke watched them walk away. She said, “They look happy together.”
“He doesn’t seem her type.”
“So what? I’m not your type either, but you like me, don’t you?”
He gazed into her eyes. “I like you a lot.” His kiss started gentle, but it didn’t stay that way. He pushed his tongue against her lips and she opened to him, letting his tongue touch hers in an intimate, heart-stopping kiss. She felt light-headed and weak, tingly all over. When he pulled back, she couldn’t look away.
“I’m crazy about you, Laura.”
She was crazy about him, too, but she wasn’t sure about having sex with him. Her body screamed with wanting it, but she didn’t want to be like Florence, and she didn’t want to end up unmarried and pregnant. Laura was a few years older than Ivy, but she wouldn’t know the first thing about being a mother. She’d had two mothers, yet she had none.
Queenie taught her to cook, Dad taught her to hate Queenie, and she barely knew Florence.
Laura and Luke watched Carlos throwing Molly’s ball in the yard. The dog streaked after it, tail wagging happily.
“I liberated Molly from a jerk out by the beach after he got drunk and beat her half to death,” said Luke. “She spent three days at the vet hospital, and I wasn’t about to let her go back to that jerk. I paid the bill and brought her to the ranch. She loves it here.”
“She’s a nice dog, Luke. What happened to the man who beat her?”
“I don’t know. The vet turned him in for animal cruelty. The guy didn’t come looking for her, which is just as well. Carlos offered to shoot him if he did. He loves that dog.”
“Does he offer to shoot everyone?”
“Just about. He knows how to use his gun, but I’ve never seen him point it at anything but rattlesnakes.” Luke glanced at Laura’s face. “Carlos and Maria were our neighbors when Mom owned that little café I told you about. They were good to me when I was a kid, so when we found this place and built our house—”
She stopped walking. “You built one for them, too?”
He turned to face her. “No, that house was already here. Mom and I lived there while the ranch house was built, then we fixed it up and offered it to them. Carlos had just retired and their kids were grown and gone. He was looking for something to supplement his retirement income, and I didn’t want Mom living out here by herself. Money draws all kinds of strange people. Some have legitimate needs, but some are just plain crazy. That’s why Carlos wears a gun. Mom had threats right after she won the money, the give-me-money-or-else kind.”
Molly’s ball sailed past and they watched the streak of black dog with her pink tongue hanging out.
Carlos yelled, “It’s your turn, Luke.”
Luke waved to Carlos. “They’re good people. I spent a lot of time at their house when I was growing up, especially when Mom had to work late. After she won the money, Mom helped a couple of their kids with college, but they don’t ask for much.”
Molly dropped her ball at Luke’s feet and wagged her tail, but she was already panting hard. Laura rubbed her head and the dog walked beside her, leaning on her leg now and then and carrying her red ball. She’d worn herself out.
The lawn sloped down toward a little creek lined with shade trees. Luke took Laura’s hand and they walked down the path toward a pair of benches by the creek. Molly lapped water from the creek while Luke and Laura sat on one of the benches.
Molly collapsed by Laura’s feet and she reached down to pet her. “What are you going to do with Earl’s property after you take over?”
Luke grinned. “Open a flooring business, of course. Billy set up a new corporation, Duchess Décor.”
“D & D Corporation, does that stand for—”
“Duke and Duchess. Billy’s idea. After Mom won the lottery, some reporter called her ‘The Duchess,’ and the media picked it up.”
Laura smiled. The name fit Barbara. She had a dignified, regal air about her, yet she was warm and easy to be with.
Her thoughts turned back to Duchess Décor. “So you’ll have the same type business as Earl, in the same locations?”
“All but three. He’ll lose those anyway. Some of his buildings are bigger than the flooring business needs, so we’ll sublet part of the space for interior decorating or furniture. Billy is contacting some of the people Earl put out of business to see if they’d be interested in buying in. They’d share profits, and since we’ll buy in volume, we can negotiate better prices and swap merchandise between stores. It’s a good deal for everyone. It’ll take a little longer to get everything set up, but we’ll get there.”
“Won’t Earl find out by then?”
“What’s he going to do about it? He can’t make his payments on time. He doesn’t make enough to pay his expenses at some of those stores. I’m surprised his suppliers haven’t cut him off.”
They sat quietly for a few minutes, Molly lying at their feet with her red ball about an inch from her nose. “What happens when Earl goes to trial, if he ever goes to trial for beating me? Won’t that hurt your new business?”
Luke leaned back and propped his arm on the bench behind Laura. “He’ll go to trial, and when he does, we’ll use the publicity in our favor.”
How many other women had Earl raped or beaten? She hated him more than she’d ever hated anyone, even Frank Fosdick, yet she was falling in love with his son. It didn’t make sense, yet it made all the sense in the world. They shared the same eye color and the same shape face, but the similarities ended there. Earl was a pig, a brutal man who preyed on those weaker than him, while Luke spent his life helping people to be successful.
<>
Billy called Laura with news the next day. “Florence’s husband was Henry Ralston. Everyone called him Hank.”
“What about the name and phone number on that scrap of paper? Is it the same man?”
“No, that’s Hank Peters. He lives in Tennessee. The area code changed years ago, but it wasn’t hard to get the right one. The man swears he’s never been to Florida and never knew anybody named Queenie.”
“What about Hank Ralston?”
“He was a petty criminal nearly twenty years older than Florence. She was just a kid when they married, so young she had to have her parents sign for her to marry.”
Did her parents know Hank had turned her into a prostitute? “What happened to him? Did they divorce?”
“No, he disappeared. Kind of convenient, since there was a warrant out for his arrest at the time. Presumed drowned. They found his car in the river, but not his body. Some reporters speculated that the gators got him, since they found blood in the car and the door was open. Others thought he’d staged the whole thing.”
What if he didn’t die? “Could the guy in Tennessee be the same man?”
“I don’t think so, Laura. Hank Peters is in his eighties, and except for a stint in the military, he’s lived in Tennessee all his life. If he’s alive, Hank Ralston would be around sixty.”
The phone call left Laura more confused than ever. Florence wasn’t free to marry Dad because she couldn’t prove her husband was dead. But that didn’t explain why Dad stayed in Kingston or why Laura didn’t grow up with Florence.
Laura tried to put herself in Queenie’s shoes. She wanted a husband and family, but her husband wanted out. Why didn’t she let him go and find herself another husband? According to Earl, s
he was a “purty little thing” before she got fat. Did she think a baby would mend her marriage?
On that tape, Dad said he was leaving at the end of that week. What happened? What did Queenie do to make him stay? And how did she convince Florence to give up her baby?
<>
After the café closed that night, Laura retrieved Luke’s boom box from the storeroom and took it back to her apartment. She wanted to listen to that Elvis cassette again. Maybe she’d missed something. She pushed the play button and listened closely.
“King of the Road.”
Laura fast forwarded to her father saying, “Like hell we will!”
“I won’t give you a divorce so you can marry that slut.”
“I’m leaving end of the week whether you like it or not. It’s over, Queenie! I won’t stay with you.”
Elvis came back on, but this time, Laura didn’t turn it off. A minute later, Elvis stopped singing again and Laura turned up the volume.
“What do you want this time, Queenie?” Her father didn’t sound defiant this time. He sounded defeated.
“You keep the baby and send Florence away or I’ll call the police.”
“I can’t take the baby away from her.”
“Then she’ll have that kid in prison and Hank’s family will get custody. You’ll never see it again. Is that what you want?”
Dad didn’t answer.
“You tell Florence I’ll be a good mother. If she’ll let us keep the baby, I won’t ever tell anyone what she did.”
“It won’t work, Queenie.”
“You have one week to make a choice. If it’s not the right one, Florence goes to jail and you lose your baby.”
Laura heard a click and Elvis came back on. She listened for several minutes, hoping there’d be more, something that would explain what Florence had done, but the only voice she heard was that of Elvis Presley. Queenie wanted a baby so much she blackmailed Laura’s parents, but in doing so, she’d punished herself. She’d led a miserable, lonely life.
Pushing thoughts of Queenie aside, one question nagged at Laura.
What had Florence done?
Chapter Thirteen
Wednesday morning dawned cloudy and muggy. Storm clouds hovered in the distance, and the air smelled like rain. Laura wondered what a summer storm would do to her business.
Thunder rumbled as she hurried to the café to start the coffee before the power went out. She could cook on the propane stove without power, but the coffee pot was electric.
She made coffee and put candles on the tables just in case. She’d just started the second pot of coffee when Meg came in. “Laura, there’s a tornado watch out for King County. I just now heard it on the radio. Those clouds are as black as midnight.”
“Let’s make an extra pot of coffee. We can always keep it warm on the stove if the power goes out.”
Laura didn’t expect much business that morning, but the regulars came, one at a time. The rain came down hard, but the worst of the storm passed south of them, and the power stayed on. She had to talk with Luke about getting a generator. They could use candles in the dining room, but she didn’t like the idea of losing the contents of the freezer and refrigerator or not being able to make coffee during a storm.
She joked and laughed with her customers that morning, listened to one of Charley Fenderman’s raunchy jokes, and then Bobby Wharton walked in. Laura’s smile disappeared.
Bobby looked at Laura with a knowing smile. His eyes scanned down her body and back up to her face while angry heat built inside her. Annabelle was bad enough, but she’d always been a bitch. Bobby had a lot of nerve even showing his face in here after what he’d done. Looking at her like that was the final straw.
Marv asked, “Something wrong, Laura?”
“Yes, sir. Something wrong just walked in the door.”
As her customers all turned to stare at Bobby, she retreated to the kitchen and tried to get her temper under control.
Bobby called, “Laura, how ’bout some service out here.”
Laura took a deep breath and steeled herself. She didn’t want to lose it in front of her customers, but she couldn’t hold it in. “You’re not welcome here, Bobby.”
“What the hell?”
Charley asked, “Something wrong, Laura?”
“Yeah. The night I was attacked, Rusty called 911, but this jerk didn’t even bother to come and see if I was all right. He met my attacker out by the street and then drove away.”
“Aw, c’mon Laura,” said Bobby. “It’s all part of the business. You have to ’spect it to get a little rough now and then.”
“What business?” asked Marv.
Marv’s question was directed at Bobby, but Laura answered. “Before he ever came here, the man who attacked me told Bobby I was selling sex.”
Charley eased his big frame out of the chair and put his hands on his hips. Gentle, meek little Marv Walker stood beside him. Charley said, “Now, Bobby, you know Laura Whitfield ain’t like that. She’s a nice girl.”
“For your information, I don’t sell sex. I never have and I never will, but that’s not the point.” Laura pointed at Bobby. “This jerk didn’t even bother to ask me what happened. He didn’t even come back to the apartment to see if I was still alive. He took the word of that pervert who beat me and tried to rape me, and then he left.” He’d also passed the word that she was a prostitute. Where else had Annabelle gotten the idea?
Bobby laughed, a nervous little sound that fell flat in the silent café. Everyone stared at him. He glanced from face to face before saying, “How can you rape a prostitute?”
Laura glanced over to see Jay standing in the door. He reached up and pushed his cap back on his head. His face was so red, she was afraid he’d have a stroke.
Jay’s voice was cold and controlled, with fury beneath his words. “I was a cop once upon a time myself. As I recall, it don’t matter what a woman’s profession happens to be. You’re ’sposed to enforce the law evenly, without bias. Now, Laura ain’t no prostitute, but if she was, it shouldn’t make no difference. She coulda been killed that night, but you didn’t even bother to take a look, did you?”
Bobby’s eyes grew as his face paled. Bobby was the biggest coward around, but Laura didn’t feel sorry for him. He’d taken the job as a police officer, and he didn’t answer a call for help. He’d ignored her and left her to suffer alone.
“Somebody shoulda taken Laura to the hospital that night. She had that man’s hand print bruised in her face, a cracked and separated shoulder...”
As Jay spoke, he eased closer to Bobby. Laura was afraid he’d kill him right here in her café. “Jay, please don’t.”
“But you didn’t give a shit ’bout nobody but yourself that night, did you?” continued Jay. “Didn’t you care ’bout Laura, or did that bastard offer you a special deal on carpet if you’d look the other way? Or did you plan to come over here and collect yourself, like Earl tried to collect from Laura that night?”
Jay stood so close, Bobby couldn’t get up and leave if he wanted.
“I-I didn’t know she was hurt that bad. Earl said—”
“Earl?” said Marv.
“Earl Windsor,” said Laura. No sense in trying to hide it now. Everybody in town would know after this. She hoped she hadn’t messed up Luke’s plans, but it was too late to worry about that now.
“When somebody calls for help, you’re ’sposed to help,” said Charley. “What the hell good are you anyway?”
“None that I can see,” said Marv. Several others voiced their agreement.
“I aughta beat the shit outta you,” said Charley. “Laura’s a nice girl. Here she is workin’ her butt off to keep this place open and you let a bastard like Earl Windsor treat her that way.”
“Resign,” said Marv.
“And apologize to the lady,” added Jay.
“Or you won’t walk outta here in one piece,” said Charley, his meaty hands clenched in tight fists.
If she didn’t do something, this could get out of hand very quickly. “Bobby, get out of my café and don’t ever come back. Quit your job or I’ll file charges against you. And if I ever hear you’re working as a cop again, anywhere, I’ll make your life a living hell. As far as I’m concerned, we’d be better off without a police department than having someone like you working there. The King County Sheriff would take longer to get here, but at least somebody would have come.” Laura’s words rang out loud and clear in the quiet café. She was angry and at that moment she didn’t care who knew it.
Bobby held his head up high, trying to look brave, but Laura saw the fear in his eyes. He should be scared. Charley Fenderman was at least six-four. He must weigh close to three hundred pounds, most of it muscle. And he was pissed. Jay was no slouch himself. As angry as he was, he could do some serious damage to Bobby’s pretty face.
“You can’t threaten a police officer.”
“The hell we can’t,” said Jay. “If I ever see you ’round here again, police officer or not, you’re dead meat. And you can quote me on that.”
“That goes double for me,” said Charley.
“Jay, let him leave,” said Laura. “Please. I don’t want blood on my new carpet.”
As soon as Jay stepped back, Bobby jumped out of the chair and raced out the door. Laura took a deep, shaky breath and Jay slipped his arm around her. “C’mon, sit down, Miss Laura. That was a gutsy thing to do, throwin’ a cop outta here like that.”
“It sure was,” said Meg.
“And stupid.” Laura dropped into a chair. “He and Frank Fosdick run this town and now they both hate me.”
Marv asked, “What did Frank do?”
“Tried to force me to sell, and Annabelle came in here acting like I was selling my body. I assume she either heard it from Frank or Bobby.”
“Frank won’t bother you again,” said Jay.
“Bobby won’t either,” said Charley. “Biggest coward I ever saw. If he don’t go willingly, we’ll force him out. Ain’t no excuse for what he done.”
“What about Earl Windsor?” asked Marv.